Courses and Clerkships

Pamela Rosenthal, MD

Ruth Crowe, MD

Anthony Grieco, MD

Michael Tanner, MD

Norma Keller, MD

Michael LoCurcio, MD

1. Foundations of Medicine

The Foundations of Medicine Course provides students with the fundamental knowledge to become effective clinician-scientists. During the first 18 months of medical school, this course guides students through physiology and pathophysiology, ensuring that students are familiar with the mechanism of disease. In effect, this course contains what most medical educators would consider the “traditional basic science” curriculum for undergraduate medical education.

2. Practice of Medicine (POM)

C21 has led to a major restructuring of the pre-clerkship courses. In a coordinated undertaking intended to introduce students to clinical medicine, POM now encompasses the following previous courses: Introduction to Bedside Diagnosis (IBD), Conversations in Medicine, and Patient Physician and Society 1 & 2. POM also includes Patient-based Longitudinal Ambulatory Clinical Experience (PLACE), which is a new longitudinal patient experience for students. This 18 month course stresses medical interviewing, patient education and counseling, cultural competency, physical diagnosis, population health, clinical epidemiology and medical decision-making. Faculty leadership for POM includes Drs. Ruth Crowe, Beno Oppenheimer and Jennifer Adams.

3. Core Medicine Clerkship

Students are introduced into an environment that is simultaneously patient-centered and student-centered on the inpatient medical services at our core teaching hospitals. This eight week clerkship focuses on case synthesis based on history, physical examination and hospital studies. Students are divided into Firms and become important members of the medical team. Please see the next section of this document that reviews the current Firm System.

4. Ambulatory Care Clerkship

The Ambulatory Care Clerkship introduces the medical student to outpatient medicine. The goal is for students to become familiar with practicing medicine in the outpatient setting. Students rotate through a number of outpatient settings and come together on Wednesdays for a highly student-rated lecture series.

5. Critical Care Clerkship

Critical Care introduces the student to the care of patients in the intensive care unit. Only senior students who have completed the mandatory clerkships are allowed to take this advanced clerkship. Students also attend lectures and simulations to help deliver curriculum content.

6. Advanced Medicine Clerkship

Advanced Medicine offers an acting internship on a general medical team at Bellevue Hospital, Tisch Hospital and the Manhattan VA to students who have successfully completed the mandatory clerkships. The key to the course is the balance of autonomy and supervision that allows for the professional maturation from student to intern.